Nederlandse medisch specialisten als auteur van artikelen over klinisch geneesmiddelenonderzoek in Engelstalige tijdschriften, 1997/'03

Objective. To determine the number and type of medical specialists in Dutch hospitals that were authors of scientific papers published in English in the field of clinical drug research in the period I997/'03. Design. Descriptive. Method. PubMed was searched for articles on clinical drug research published in February I997-January 2003. (Co)authors were included if they were registered in the Genaskundig Adresboek 2002-2003 (Medical Address Book 2002-2003) as a medical specialist working in a hospital. Hospitals were categorized as academic, non-academic teaching, general or non-affiliated. Journals were categorized by the type of published research: fundamental or biomedical, disease-specific, or specialty-specific. Results. A total of I776 articles in 426 journals were retrieved with at least I medical specialist listed as a (co)author. I718 medical specialists were identified as authors, which represents II% of the I6.065 registered medical specialists in the Netherlands. Most authors were involved in the nonsurgical specialties, primarily internist subspecialties, followed by paediatrics, cardiology, and neurology. The authors were employed in nearly all Dutch hospitals. The 1728 specialists had a total of 4952 authorships; 57% of the authors and 70% of the authorships came from academic hospitals. The average impact factor, the number of articles and the number of authorships were greatest in the disease-specific journal category.In the period 1997/'03 the number of authorships from non-academic teaching hospitals and general hospitals decreased, while the number of authorships from academic hospitals increased, particularly with regard to the number of co-authorships.